Sunday, May 05, 2013

By M H Ahssan / BangaloreWith just few days left for the high-stake assembly elections in Karnataka, this BJP-ruled southern state of the country is witnessing a fierce political campaign to woo voters. While major parties have roped in star political campaigners and celebrities to influence voters, myriad promises have been made and various sops have been offered this time too in their respective election manifestoes. The fast approaching assembly elections in Karnataka, the outcome of which will set the tone and tempo for the 2014 General Elections, is also crucial for the ruling BJP that suffered huge reverses in the recently concluded urban local body polls. Interestingly, barring the exception of 1985 when Ramakrishna Hegde stormed back to power with a huge mandate, Karnataka has never elected an incumbent government back to power since 1983 when the Janata Dal destroyed Congress’ monopoly on state politics forever.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The tendency to treat the Karnataka elections in May as an indicator of what is likely to happen in national elections, particularly if the parliamentary elections are held earlier than scheduled, may be misleading. There are very few states in the country that can be taken as indicators of the national mood and Karnataka is certainly not one of them.What makes the Karnataka polls interesting from the national perspective is that both the BJP and the Congress have an opportunity to test out their strategies for the parliamentary poll. And the Karnataka polls could very well provide an indication of just how effective the strategies of Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi will prove to be.

Saturday, May 04, 2013

By M H Ahssan / BangaloreLingayats, Vokkalikga heartland, Old Mysore, Hyderabad-Karnataka, Mumbai-Karnataka: These terms crop up frequently in the media as voters in Karnataka queue up to cast their votes Sunday to elect the state’s 14th assembly.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The last triumph in Karnataka gave the BJP a template for expanding into new geographies. Five years later, the party has lost the fight even before the electoral battle has started.Who would have thought it would turn out this way. In the summer of 2008, the BJP was bang in the middle of its impossible and wrenching generational change, from the Vajpayee-Advani era to the next one. Factionalism was intense; inner-party warfare was acquiring the dimensions of an existential crisis. In this gloomy atmosphere, Karnataka gave the party the best gift it had got since its election to office in New Delhi in 1998. A near-outright victory in a southern Indian state was, after all, about as momentous for the BJP as coming to power in the national capital.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

‘Go Goa 365 days on a holiday’ — the punch line for India’s hottest tourist destination says. The BJP leadership, however, will move to the scenic sea front of this coastal state on 8-9 June to do some serious business — brainstorm a winning formula for the next parliamentary elections.

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

INN News DeskVarious exit polls have predicted a Congress comeback in Karnataka on its own steam after over two decades. INN predicted that the Congress would bag 110-116 seats in the 224 member Karnataka Assembly while the ruling BJP may end up with around 50 seats.Other exit polls put the Congress at 132 and the BJP at around 40, down from 110 from previous elections.

Friday, April 26, 2013

If there is one thing BJP leaders have been averse to discussing during this Karnataka election campaign, it is BS Yeddyurappa and how their former colleague is likely to split the traditional BJP vote. So what do they talk about instead? The leadership crisis in the Karnataka Congress.Law minister Suresh Kumar could not help taking potshots at how former chief minister and foreign minister SM Krishna is making a valiant bid to stay relevant in Karnataka politics. He pointed out, with a considerable degree of amusement, how a photograph of Krishna playing tennis was released to the press recently just to send across a message to his critics that he was fighting fit. Being overpopulated with chief ministerial aspirants would prove the Congress party’s nemesis, predicts the BJP.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

By M H Ahssan & Kajol SinghIf anything, the resignations of two cabinet ministers facing charges of moral turpitude, and that too from a government on crutches, should come as a shot in the arm for the opposition. But the Bharatiya Janata Party has not been able to make political capital of it. Its own troubles are to blame. Though the BJP’s debacle in Karnataka was a foregone conclusion, it has again bared the cracks within the party, slowing down its imagined ascent and drawing attention away from the disarray in the Congress to the contradictions within the BJP.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Results to the Assembly Election in Karnataka are along predictable lines. Congress has emerged as the winner, BJP has been demolished and Janata Dal (Secular) refuses to be written off. Despite this very foreseeable outcome – even most exit polls got it right this time – there is a sobering reality underlining it. First, there is no sweeping sentiment; Congress has won by a slim margin in the 224-seat house and that is therefore no endorsement of its brave assertion of ‘we survive everything’.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

An ambitious RSS social engineering project is transporting children from Meghalaya to Karnataka to bring them up ‘the Hindu way,’ discovers HNN.

In an investigation spanning 35 schools across Karnataka and four districts in Meghalaya, HNN has found that since 2001, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has embarked on an ambitious social engineering project to transfer at least 1,600 children from Meghalaya to RSS-friendly schools across Karnataka. The latest batch comprising 160 children arrived in Bengaluru on June 7, 2009. Thirty RSS volunteers accompanied the children on the 50-hour train journey down to the city.

Tukaram Shetty, the RSS organiser responsible for the programme, in conversations spanning three months, candidly admitted to HNN that the children were part of a larger mission launched by the RSS and its affiliate organisations to ‘protect’ people from Christian missionaries active in Meghalaya. “We are committed to nurturing the Hindu way of life. There is a long-term plan envisioned by the RSS to defeat the Christian missionary forces active in Meghalaya while expanding our base in the region. These children form a part of that long-term vision. In the years to come, they will propagate our values amongst their own family members,” A childhood recruit into the RSS fold, Shetty hails from Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka and has spent close to eight years in Meghalaya – familiarising himself with the terrain and culture.

The RSS programme brings to the fore several concerns operating as it does within the demographic context of Meghalaya. The state is one of the few Christian majority states in India, with 70.25 percent of the population being classified as Christians in the 2001 census. In comparison, Hindus are pegged at 13.27 percent while a category of religious compositions pegged as ‘others’ – a possible reference to the indigenous tribal religions – is at 11.52 percent. The first Christian missionaries arrived in the mid nineteenth century to work amongst the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia tribes living in the region that now comprises Meghalaya.

Despite the long entrenched history of Christian conversions in the state, there exists a significant minority population of tribals who have steadfastly continued to practice their indigenous religions – their beliefs often spliced with a thin wedge of resentment against those who have chosen to convert. The RSS plans of ‘expanding the base in the region’ capitalises on this wedge of resentment with children and their education being — as Shetty admits — the starting points of engagement.

The Thinkabettu Higher Primary and Secondary School in remote Uppur — nearly 500 km from Bengaluru — is one of the 35 schools in Karnataka where the children are studying. In 2008, 17 students between six and seven years were brought to this school from Meghalaya. Following instructions from the head of the school, the children of Thinkabettu School stand up, announce their names politely in Kannada, the local language, and sit down again on the bare floor. Ask the head of the school to introduce himself and he refuses, saying, “You have come to see the children, here they are. If I give you my name, you will use it against me.” The only details forthcoming are that he is a retired bank employee and that the school, which is a century old, was started by his father. A woman in the corner is revealed to be his wife, Nirmala.

Introductions done, the children are asked to recite the latest prayer that they have memorised. Hands folded and eyes closed, the children, with shorn heads and in ragged clothes, begin a Brahminical chant that is a tribute to the teacher — Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara. The children are sitting in the same hall that serves as their school and hostel. They live and breathe, eat and sleep and study on that same barren floor. A 30-watt bulb, a blackboard and a few books and slates neatly lined up complete the picture. An ancient fridge and a ramshackle sofa separate the children’s space from the kitchen area of the hall.

Drawn from remote and often inaccessible villages across four districts in Meghalaya — Ri Bhoi, West Khasi Hills, East Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills — the children taken by the RSS to study in Karnataka belong to the Khasi and Jaintia tribal communities. Traditionally, the Khasi tribes follow the Seng Khasi religion, while the Jaintias follow Niamtre religion. Ask Manje Gowda, Headmaster at the Sri Adichunchanagiri Higher Primary School in BG Nagar, Mandya district where 38 children from Meghalaya currently study, why students are taken out of Meghalaya and he echoes Shetty’s logic, “If the children had stayed on in Meghalaya they would have been converted to Christianity by now. The RSS is trying to protect them. The education that the children receive here includes strong cultural values. When they go back home, after their education, they will help propagate these values to their families.”

The cultural values that Gowda talks of imparting to children include familiarity with Brahiminical chants, Hindu religious festivals, and a weaning away from an overwhelmingly non-vegetarian Meghalayan diet to vegetarianism. How could this possibly help the RSS in expanding their base? Shetty told HNN that indoctrination of cultural values and discipline was the first step. “It is important that children imbibe these values early on. It will bring them closer to us and away from the Christian way of life.

We teach them shlokas so they will not recite hymns. We take them away from meat so they will abhor the animal sacrifice that is inherent in their own religion,” he says. “Ultimately, when the RSS tells them that the cow is a sacred animal and that all those who kill and eat it have no place in our society, these children will listen,” he recounts calmly. Are these children being groomed to be the future foot soldiers of RSS? Shetty’s only answer is that they will part of ‘the family’ in one way or another and that time will decide.

As HNN found, across schools in different districts of Karnataka, the cultural values imparted did not vary. The degrees of immersion into the RSS credo, however, depended on the schools the children were placed in. Children who came from financially stable homes were placed in schools with proper educational and hostel facilities since parents were able to pay for them. In these schools, the disciplinary regime imposed on the children was more relaxed compared to the schools where children from poorer families were placed. HNN found that 60 percent of the children it met came from economically weaker families. Subsequently, the schools that these children were placed in resembled the Thinkabettu school in Uppur where both education and lodging facilities were free and dismal.

Most of the schools where the children have been placed are located in the coastal belt of Karnataka, the region that has emerged as the centre of communal violence in the state. The places include Puttur, Kalladka, Kaup, Kollur, Uppur, Deralakatte, Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikmaglur districts. Besides these, the children have been placed in schools run by influential ashrams such as the JSS Mutt in Suttur, the Adi Chunchanagiri Mutt in Mandya district and the Murugrajendra Mutt in Chitradurga district.

How do children from Meghalaya end up thousands of kilometres away in Karnataka? What is the modus operandi? Almost every child and parent that HNN spoke with identified Tukaram Shetty as the man who proposed the idea of educating children in Karnataka, offered to take the children there and then ultimately accompanied the children to Karnataka.

A former Seva Bharati (an RSS-affiliated community service organization) worker, Shetty is the official face of the Lei Synshar Cultural Society, a shell organisation established to maintain the required official distance from the RSS. In fact, the Lei Synshar Cultural Society is utterly unknown even outside its own head office in Jowai in the Jaintia Hills district. Ask for Tukaram or Bah Ram as he is called in Meghalaya and there are instant flashes of recognition. Outside the capital city, Shillong, right down to the village level, people easily recognise the RSS as the organisation that takes children to Karnataka. The organisation runs three offices in the Jaintia Hills district – in Jowai, Nartiang and Shongpong. Besides, there are several spaces occupied by the Seva Bharati and Kalyan Ashram organizations which help in the identification and transport of children.

YOLIN KHARUMINI, a teacher at a local Seng Khasi school and resident at Shillong’s Kalyan Ashram described the process. “We are asked to identify families that have not converted to Christianity and are firm in their belief in indigenous religions — Seng Khasi and Niamtre. Usually, these are families that nurse some form of resentment against Christians. Offers are made to these families to have their children educated in Karnataka. We always tell them that they will be educated according to Seng Khasi or Niamtre traditions.” Kharumini’s own niece, Kerdamon Kharumini, studies in Mangala Nursing School in Karnataka. Lists are drawn up based on the parents’ capacity to afford the child’s education and hostel facilities.

Continuing the narrative, Khatbiang Rymbai, a Class 10 student at Vidya - niketan School in Kaup, Udupi district described in detail how 200 children travelled to Bengaluru from various villages. “There were many young children. So when they divided us into groups of 13-14, the older children were put in charge. In Shillong, we were all given identification tags which had mobile numbers and the Jowai address of the Lei Synshar Cultural Society. From there, we traveled in Tata Sumos to Guwahati to take the train to Bengaluru,” she says. In Bengaluru, they were taken to the RSS office before being split into groups to go to their respective schools.

In a chilling admission, an RSS worker in Shillong, Prafulla Chandra Koch and the head of the Thinkabettu school told HNN that care is always taken to ensure that any siblings are separated from each other. “It is easier to discipline them if they are not together. We have to control them if we have to mould them. The lesser the contact they have with home, the better it is, really,” he stated.

HNN met with several siblings placed in different schools – Khatbiang’s brother Supplybiang Rymbai was placed in Prashanti Vidya Kendra in Kasargod, Kerala while she studies in Vidyaniketan school near Udupi in Karnataka. Yet another student at Vidyaniketan, Reenborn Tariang admitted to having a sister, Wanboklin Tariang, at the JSS Mutt school in Mysore. Bedd Sympli at the Abhinav Bharati Boys Hostel in Mandya district has a sister studying in Vidyaniketan, Udupi district; Iwanroi Langbang a student at the Adi Chunchanagiri Mutt school in Mandya district had a sister, Daiamonlangki, at the Vanishree school in Shimoga district. There is not one instance of siblings studying together. Ask the children why they were separated and there are no answers.

When HNN asked parents why they had chosen to place their children in different schools, they admitted they were only informed of it several months after the children had started school. Says Klis Rymbai, Khatbiang and Supplybiang’s older sister, “When they left home, all we knew was that they would go to Bengaluru. We had no details of the school they would go to – not even a name or address. Much later, we realised that Khatbiang and Supplybiang were separated and that they were not in Bengaluru.

Khatbiang also told us she was repeating Class VIII after she got admitted into school. The RSS promised to take care of our children and we trusted them.” Klis admits that her family is attempting to bring Supplybiang back to Meghalaya. “He has not adjusted well and is still young so we want him to come back. Khatbiang has already lost a year so it is best she finishes school there,” says Klis. The Rymbais are extremely well off, having made their money through mining in the Jaintia Hills district. The father, Koren Chyrmang, is an RSS sympathiser, who, besides sending his own children, has helped convince other families to send their children across. “He used to be very active but has fallen sick of late This has prevented him from traveling to other villages in this area with the RSS,” says Klis.

The physical and mental impact of studying in school environments diametrically opposed to their culture, language, religion, and food habits has been devastating. In the schools that HNN visited, hostel wardens, heads of schools and the children themselves admitted to having had serious physical problems given the differences in climatic conditions between their villages in Meghalaya and schools in Karnataka. In the Deenabandhu Children’s Home, Chamarajnagar, Karnataka, according to the Secretary, GS Jayadev, the six-year-olds from Meghalaya — Shining Lamo, Sibin Ryngkhlem and Spid Khongshei — had skin rashes for over a month as their bodies tried to acclimatise to the heat of Karnataka. Besides rashes, Spid’s eyes turned bloodshot. Doctors at the hospital where Spid was taken by school authorities told them that it was a natural reaction to the altitudinal differences.

In Thinkabettu school, too, children had severe sunburns on their faces, hands and legs though they had already spent three months in Karnataka when HNN visited them. The situation was no different with the children studying in the Kalabyraveshwara Sanskrit College run by the Adichunchanagiri Mutt in Nagamangala. Of the 11 children from Meghalaya who were placed in this school, the oldest, Iohidahun Rabon told HNN that the three of the younger ones — Sowatki Chulet, Tailang Nongdam and Perskimlang Nongkrot — were chronically ill since they had not taken to the food being given to them.

The psychological impact of the move was also obvious on several children. In all the schools that HNN visited seeking information about children from Meghalaya, the school authorities summoned the children from their classes and instructed them to introduce themselves in Kannada. For the authorities, it was a matter of great pride that children who had no association with Kannada had been taught the language well. That students who did not know a word of Sanskrit earlier now recited Sanskrit prayers with great clarity. In the Sri Adichunchanagiri Higher Primary School in BG Nagar, Mandya district, the headmaster, Manje Gowda, flung a Kannada newspaper at a student from Meghalaya, ordering him to read it. Obediently, in a low voice, devoid of any expression, the boy proceeded to read a few sentences, before quietly folding and placing the newspaper back on the headmaster’s desk. Till he was sent away, the boy never looked up. In school after school, the same scene unfolded with variations in the demonstrations of skill and familiarity with Kannada and Sanskrit.

While the authorities claimed that the students from Meghalaya had integrated well with the rest, there was overwhelming evidence to suggest otherwise. A few minutes of conversation with the children brought out stories of how they were laughed at because their names were unfamiliar and because they looked different. Invariably, and especially amongst the older students, relationships were forged with others from Meghalaya. In classrooms, six or seven students from Meghalaya squeezed into a bench meant to seat four children. Speaking Kannada had integrated the children only so far. Faced with animosity, they have withdrawn into the familiar. In schools where this was not a possibility given the limited number of students from Meghalaya, they withdrew into themselves.

The locations of the schools did not help alleviate their isolation at all. Iwanroi Langbang, a Class IX student currently staying in Nagamangala (about 150 kms from Bengaluru), talked of her disappointment at not studying in Bengaluru. “We were only told that I would be studying in Bengaluru. It was only after I came here that I heard the name of the school and realised that it was very far from Bengaluru. Here, we are not allowed outside the compound wall. And even if we get away, there is nothing outside,” said Langbang. Her school is located off an isolated stretch of the state highway.

A consequence of completely immersing young children from Meghalaya in a Kannada-speaking environment was visible at the Deenabandhu Children’s Home in Chamarajnagar district. A caretaker at the Home described one child’s growing familiarity with Kannada, “Sibin [one of the children at the Home] has picked up a lot of Kannada in the two months he has been here. During a phone call from a relative back home, he kept answering questions in Kannada which obviously they did not understand at all.” In a shocking display of insensitivity, the caretaker burst into laughter at what she thought was a hilarious incident and added, “For 45 minutes, a woman, I assume his mother, kept trying. Sibin, of course, had no answers since he had forgotten his own language.” She giggled. The caretaker then proceeded to teach Sibin the Kannada word for dinner.

According TO Sibin’s birth certificate, he is six. Yet another certificate issued by the village headman of Sibin’s village, Mihmyntdu, certifies that he comes from a poor family and needs help for his education. HNN was unable to contact his parents.

The physical and mental consequences suffered by children from Meghalaya differ from the everyday story of children placed in several thousand boarding schools across the country. That there is a larger plan behind the transportation of these children is something that RSS workers like Koch, have no qualms admitting.

Why are parents willing to send young children aged only six and seven to a distant place? In the face of these overwhelming disadvantages to the children, during visits with parents across eight villages in Meghalaya, HNN found that parents — mostly poor — handed over their children to the RSS in the belief that their kids would be well cared for, as promised. Often, the transportation of children followed kinship routes, with younger siblings following older ones. While this may seem to defy logic, examined closely, it speaks of the intricate web of lies that the RSS has managed to weave, webs that ensnare parents, school authorities and often the children themselves. There are multiple untruths that are the foundation of this entire process.

When HNN approached schools in Karnataka seeking papers that legalise the transfers of children across states, letters signed by the village headman or the Rangbah Shnong attesting to the family’s poor economic condition were handed out along with birth and caste certificates. Across different schools that HNN visited, not a single letter was produced with the parents’ signature that stated explicitly that the care of their children was handed over to that particular school. No parent that HNN met in Meghalaya had copies of any signed consent letter signed. Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 – such consent letters are mandatory for legal transfers of children.

The transportation of children, then, with no official papers sanctioning the move, is in clear violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000. Under this law, the RSS can be held guilty of child trafficking.

Amongst the Khasi and Jaintia tribes, there is a tenuous relationship between those who have converted to Christianity and those who have not. The RSS carefully selects children from poor families who have not converted to Christianity. “I was told that the only way to protect my daughter from conversion was to send her outside. If I didn’t, the Church would take them away and make them priests and nuns,” said Biye Nongrum in Swer village. “I was afraid for my daughter and so I agreed to hand her over,” she says. Six years after her daughter left home, Biye has no details of the school that she is studying in.

All she has is a class photograph. “I don’t have the money to visit my daughter and bring her back, even if I find out where she is. But I will never send another child away,” she says. Biye ekes out a living by selling sweet pancakes to richer families in the village. The ramshackle house that she shares with her mother and at least three other children further signal her poverty stricken condition. The socioeconomic status of the families are an indication of why it is difficult for the parents to ever bring their children back — they simply cannot afford it.

Several parents told HNN that the RSS schools where their children were studying were schools that upheld their indigenous religions – a rationale that has many takers. In Jel Chyrmang’s home in Mookhep village, HNN found a framed photograph of Jel’s daughter, Rani Chyrmang, being felicitated by the patron saint of her school, Sri Balagangadharnath. Ask Jel who the saffron-robed saint is and she blithely repeats what she has been told, a story that would be hilarious if the circumstances were not so sad. According to Jel, Sri Balagangadharnath is a Seng Khasi saint who runs her daughter’s school. There is no doubt in her voice at all. Jel’s ignorance, however, does not extend to others in the family. Her husband, Denis Siangshai, who contested the recent Lok Sabha elections, turns out to be an RSS worker. Using his daughter as an example, he admitted to having convinced others in the area as well. “People have a wrong notion of RSS. I always tell them that the RSS will give them good education and culture,” says Denis.

Most parents have no idea that the schools chosen by the RSS espouse a different ideology. Besides the forced culturisation, even the libraries and books handed out to the students are RSS publications from recognized right-wing publishing houses in Bengaluru. In the JSS Ashram school, the library was stocked with publications of RSS ideologues published from Bharata Samskruti Prakashana (Indian Culture Publications). No trace of Seng Khasi teachings or Niamtre practices.

For a non-tribal society like Karnataka, the notion of a father abandoning the family is seen as a social and economic disaster. Meghalaya, though, is a matrilineal society, where men move to live with women in their villages. Mothers continue to remain the primary caretakers. Even if the mother dies, the child is brought up by relatives and is never entirely abandoned.

When children first leave Meghalaya, parents and children are not aware where the children will ultimately be taken. As direct communication between the children and parents is limited owing to the socio-economic conditions of the parents and the lack of facilities at the schools, the RSS is the main intermediary between the two. The RSS tells parents that the children are happy and well adjusted in their new environments. The reality is something else.

Raplangki Dkhar, a standard VI student at Vidyaniketan, was clearly waiting for his uncle to come take him home. “Only if people from home come and take us, we can go back. Every year when school ends, we hear that we will be taken back. But it has been two years already,” said a forlorn Raplangki. Only two of the children TEHELKA met had ever returned home to visit. Back in Raplangki’s hometown in Raliang, Meghalaya, when HNN asked his uncle why he had not visited Raplangki, he is surprised, “I had no reason to doubt the fact that my nephew has adjusted well. At every RSS meeting in Jowai we are assured by them that the kids are healthy and happy.”

Direct phone calls between children and parents are dependent entirely on the parents’ finances. If the parents have not been able to pay for the child’s education, the schools that they are placed in are often the free orphanages run by the Mutts, where access to phones is non-existent, as is the case with the free hostel run by the Sri Adichunchanagiri Mutt.

For the RSS, these falsifications are part of a process. A process that is bound to add an additional layer of complexity amongst the people of Meghalaya, quite apart from the mental and social costs inflicted on young children.

‘The Children Will Champion Hinduism’At the Kalyan Ashram in Shillong, Prafulla Chandra Koch and Sukanto Borman, two RSS workers, talked with HNN about what the RSS hopes to gain through the programme. Both refused to be photographed.

For how many years have the children been taken to Karnataka? How many have gone?SB: I am not sure about the years, but I know there are more than 1,500 to 1,600 children in schools in Karnataka. Every year, Tukaram Shetty takes more children with him.

But why don’t you start schools here? Why send them to Karnataka?PCK: In some villages, we help village councils run schools. We pay their teachers’ salaries. This isn’t possible in many villages since the Christians are everywhere here. This programme is also about culture. The children are sent to schools in Karnataka to imbibe good cultural values.

What values are you talking about?SB: That we are all Hindus and that Hindus have to stick together...

PCK: (interrupts) When they stay in Karnataka, they are exposed to many other children. They learn to live in harmony with them. They carry the love and acceptance they get there back to Meghalaya and spread it to their parents. Right now, outsiders or dakkar are viewed with a lot of suspicion but this will change after some years, making our work easier.

What specific gains does the RSS hope for? PCK: Since these children are educated in RSS schools, they will adopt the Hindu religion. Already, we have seen children refusing to eat meat when they return. They will also teach their parents to follow in their footsteps. Over time, the children who return will champion the Hindu way of life in Meghalaya.

That is a really long-term agenda. PCK: We benefit immediately too. Four to five times a year, we hold compulsory meetings with the parents of children sent to Karnataka, usually in Jowai. RSS pracharaks attend these meetings. We share information with the parents and ask them if their children have been in touch with them and what they have been saying. Besides this, discussions also revolve around conversions and the problems that are created by Christians in Meghalaya. We can’t call it a shakha yet, but give us another year.

‘I Begged Them For My Son’s Number’She believed the RSS when they said a better future awaited Iohi but didn’t have the money to bring him back

AT 16, Iohidahun is the oldest of the 11 students from Meghalaya at the Kalabyraveshwara Sanskrit College run by Sri Adi Chunchanagiri Mutt. Iohi has already spent three-and-a-half years training to be a priest.

When HNN visited the hostel, all the children from Meghalaya were lined up and asked to recite shlokas. Iohi, almost reluctantly, led the group. Even hours later, Iohi remained resolutely silent, offering clipped answers to questions. Did he miss home? Of course. Did he like the hostel? Did he want to be a priest? There were no answers. Iohi was not sullen, he had just withdrawn completely.

Three months later, when HNN visited his village, Shangpung Pohshnong in Meghalaya, his aunt, Sa Rabon, presented a completely different picture of Iohi. As a child, he was one of the naughtiest one around who came home only when he was hungry. The child who would not stop talking. Iohi lost both his parents at an early age and was brought up his aunt. “My sister [Iohi’s mother] is dead. I am his mother now. He is no orphan,” says Sa in complete defiance of the claims made by Iohi’s hostel authorities that he was an abandoned orphan.

“For the first two years, I had no idea where he was. Not a single phone call from him. I begged and cried and asked the people who took him away for a number to call him on. Every meeting that I attended in Jowai, this was the only question that I asked Bah Ram (Tukaram Shetty). But he was aggressive and refused. Finally, someone else gave me the number and offered to take me to see my son. But I didn’t have the money,” recounts Sa. Why was he sent away in the first place? “They told us that they would take good care of him. I wanted the best for my child, but didn’t know it would be like this,” says Sa.

Sa is clearly a distressed mother – five days before we visited the place, Iohi had called to complain that money given to him was stolen and that he couldn’t take the beatings anymore.

Friday, May 10, 2013

By Rohit Kumar / BangaloreThe assembly election result in Karnataka has given hope to the dwindling fortunes of the Congress at the Centre. In what can only be described as a thumping victory, the party trounced the BJP in its southern bastion by winning 121 of the 223 Assembly seats. The BJP came a distant second with 40 seats, the same number that fell in the JD(S)’ kitty.Recently, a beaming Sonia Gandhi told reporters in Parliament: “I am very happy with the victory in Karnataka. It was a joint effort.” The smiles were all around. Coming on a day when the Supreme Court censured the UPA government over the coal blocks allocation scam, the Karnataka outcome gave it the horse it needed to hitch its wagon to the next stop.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Will the Karnataka government’s ban on Owaisi from holding public meetings in Bengaluru help his party?When the Karnataka High Court upheld the ban on Asaduddin Owaisi’s entry into Bengaluru last week, it sent a strong message to his supporters that the Congress government in the state would leave no stone unturned to stop the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party led by him from establishing its footprint in the city. In February, the Bengaluru police had denied him permission to hold a public meeting in the city, a move that was challenged by Owaisi’s supporters in the high court.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Those who are demanding that the Congress should make up its mind on the Telangana issue before or at the all-party meeting on 28 December in New Delhi are looking west, because the important decision on the Hyderabad-Karnataka region is perhaps an indication to which way the ruling party will go.

A bit of history first. The districts of Yadgir, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal and Bellary were once part of the Nizam kingdom. Now known within Karnataka as the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, this arid region is the more backward part of Karnataka. The Lok Sabha unanimously passed the 118th Amendment Bill last week granting special status and recognition to these six districts. The government can now establish a separate development board and also provide reservation in Karnataka government jobs and educational institutions.

While it is true that unlike Telangana, there is really no movement demanding statehood for this part of Karnataka, the Centre through this Bill wants to demonstrate that it is more inclined to recognise regional disparities within a state and find a solution through such development boards. It has already experimented in the past with a similar move in Gorkhaland in West Bengal.

Telangana has, however, seen development councils before. And the experience has been nothing to write home about. People of the region look at them purely as throwing a few crumbs like creating job opportunities by setting up PSUs and the feeling by and large is that only the politicians gain by grabbing positions on such boards. The proposal, if made formally, will be rejected outright by the political parties spearheading the movement.

But from the Centre’s point of view, if such a move is made on Telangana, it is likely to receive no opposition from coastal Andhra side though it would only be fair that Rayalaseema — which in many senses is more backward than Telangana — should also get a regional developmental board. A development board with huge funds coupled with a second State Reorganisation committee could be the combo that the Centre could sell to Telangana.

The argument that is being built up in favour of a development board for Telangana on the lines of Hyderabad-Karnataka is that the Centre cannot have a dual policy on creation of new states. If development boards with an economic package and reservations are the way to deal with backwardness in some parts, the government cannot solve a similar problem across the border by creating a state.

The fear also is that creation of Telangana could incite a similar movement in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, besides of course, re-igniting statehood fires in Vidarbha and Bodoland.

But beyond these academic considerations also are serious political calculations. BJP’s victory in Gujarat has given the party a boost and it now fancies its chances in Telangana, especially if Narendra Modi campaigns aggressively in the region. The Congress strategists are loathe to concede anything that may benefit the BJP politically.

Moreover, it is too late in the day for the Congress to gain politically even if it grants Telangana as it would be seen as a reluctant move, given under duress.

However, before firming up its mind on its stand on Telangana, the Congress will need to look within. Minus statehood, one-third of its MPs from Telangana could be TRS-bound, a few others for YSR Congress. There are many others who would prefer to float a Telangana front and contest under a common umbrella, since they are uncomfortable with the leadership style of both KCR and Jagan. They hope that with seat adjustments with the TRS and the BJP, a Front will help them guard their own personal political future.

Another concern for the Telangana Congress leaders is whether the 28 December meeting, which its MPs pushed its leadership to hold, will take place at all. Given the precarious law and order situation in Delhi over the rape incident, Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is busy firefighting and may be mentally and physically in a state of fatigue to douse the Telangana fire.

Monday, April 22, 2013

By CJ Khaja Pasha in BangaloreNear Modi Masjid at Indian Express road take a few turns and before you reach the Welfare Party of India (WPI) Karnataka state office. Located in a residential building, when one gets inside, it nothing but resemble a well-designed corporate office where state leadership in the press hall were busy in taking interviews of candidates who wish to contest election on party’s ticket.WPI Karnataka state unit is just a year old but seem enthusiastic with the hope of making a mark in a state where corruption rule the roots of the politics.WPI, formed as anational political party in 2011 was launched by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in Delhi. It claims of striving towards alternate politics and hopes to achieve it by inculcating moral values in political system. According to WPI the criminalization, communalization, commercialization and the sectarianization of politics are the biggest evils prevailing in Indian political culture, which WPI hopes to eradicate by propagating ‘value-based politics’.

Sunday, May 05, 2013

By M H Ahssan / BangaloreSo the people of Karnataka have punched. And going by the bhavishya-vaani of three different exit pollsters, delivered a knockout punch to the BJP. It is pretty much certain that Karnataka is set to usher in a Congress government on 8 May.The scenario that is emerging (depending on which exit poll you would like to believe) is that the Congress could end up either with a clear majority, above 130 seats out of 223 (election in one constituency was countermanded because of the death of the BJP candidate) or come within kissing distance of power around the 110 mark, just like the BJP in 2008. There of course, will be the eager independents who will be willing to do business with the Congress. The real contest will take place between the BJP and the JD(S) for the second spot, that will determine who will be the Leader of Opposition. BS Yeddyurappa, who still defiantly claims he will get absolute majority, will be left alone to lick his wounds and wipe his tears.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Muslim voters hold the key as Karnataka braces for assembly elections on May 5. Accounting for 12.5% of the state’s 4.19 crore electorate, Muslims are poised to decide the fate of key political players, mainly the ‘secular’ ones like the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular). The outcome of the poll in 65 assembly constituencies out of 224 will depend on how Muslim voters exercise their franchise. And, this will precisely decide who would rule Karnataka for the next five years. All this sounds fine but Muslims are concerned about their ‘presence’ in the assembly with their representation hovering in the range of 6 to 12 members in the previous elections. Only in 1978 elections, which had brought the Congress-I to power, a record number of 16 Muslims were elected. Twelve Muslims were elected in 1972, 1989 and 1999 polls. In 1967, 1994 and 2004 elections, only six Muslims were elected each time. In 1957 and 2008, nine Muslims each were elected. The representation was as low as only two Muslim MLAs in 1983, when Ramakrishna Hegde’s Janata Party swept to power, five in 1952 polls, seven in 1962 and eight in 1985 elections.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Facing a shortage of trained beedi workers in Chennapatna, 65km from Bangalore, a leading beedi factory is planning to set up a branch in the Nizamabad district of Telangana this year.

This strategic move by Karnataka Jyothi Beedies (KJB) was unveiled to HNN by S.K.Shakeel, proprietor of Karnataka Jyothi Beedies, who said that Nizamabad in the northern Telangana region has a skilled work force required by his factory. The decision also means job creation for people of that district at a time when the entire country is facing the heat of global recession.

Chennapatna, located in the rural district of Bangalore, is a tourist resort renowned for its arts and handicrafts. But it has also carved out a niche for itself as a beedi production centre. The 50-year-old factory, according to Shakeel, has a production capacity of five lakh beedies per month, for which he hires 100 women workers who do the job from their homes. He pays them Rs.68 per day for rolling tobacco leaves into beedies. This is in addition to facilities like Provident Fund for their welfare and bonus depending on the annual profit.

He said beedi manufacturing is a cottage industry, for which tobacco leaves are procured from Maharashtra and Chhatisgrah, while tobacco is sourced from Nipani in Belgaum (Karnataka). It is a labour-intensive industry producing income for housewives. He wants to step up his production to meet the growing demand for beedies despite the presence of 52 beedi factories in the State.

A demographic profile of the district as per the 2001 census shows the total population of the district at 23.42 lakhs, with the ratio of males at 2.14 lakhs to 2.08 lakhs for females in the urban areas as against 9.48 and 9.72 lakhs respectively in the rural areas. Thus, women slightly outnumber men in the rural areas, while they are almost evenly matched in the township. As such, it provides a good catchment area for recruiting women for rolling beedi leaves—a factor that makes Nizamabad a strong candidate for locating KJB’s factory outside its home base.

Statistical data also shows that agriculture is the mainstay of its economy, with about 81% of the working population subsisting on farming. One of the oldest factories in that district is the Nizam Sugar Factory, besides other small-scale agro-industries. Since a majority of its population is impoverished due to poor educational standards and resources crunch, some 28 NGOs, including IndianNGOs.com, are working in cooperation with Hindustan Unilever Ltd to promote volunteering management services in the areas of secondary girl children, water, environment, livelihood, empowerment of SC / STs. The impending arrival of KJB could provide a shot in the arm to the people in their search for livelihood.

Recently, the beedi industry, both in Karnataka and elsewhere in India, had come under pressure during the US Presidential campaign, when former Illinois Senator and now President Barrack Obama turned the spotlight on the import of Indian beedies into the US as it involved child labour. The campaign led to the imposition of a ban on beedi imports from Karnataka and other Indian states.

Though their earnings were slashed, parents had no choice but to pull their children out of school and induct them into other odd jobs like working as shoe-shine boys, house servants or in agarbatti factories, where the wages were higher than those offered by the beedi industry. But the girls continued to roll beedies due to the pressure of living. More than 80 percent of the beedi workers hail from the Muslim community in view of their low standard of living, according to a survey of the beedi industry in Karnataka.

The study also indicates that around 60 percent of the poor children, who used to assist their parents, were school-goers before the US sanctions were slapped. Since then, there has been no significant improvement in the level of their school enrollment. In the case of girls, the percentage of school dropouts stands at 90 as they are obliged to help their parents eke out a living. In this respect, Karnataka Jyothi Beedies offers at least a living wage to women workers, besides other statutory benefits, so that they could send their children to government or municipal schools and improve their future prospects.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

A top Congress party official said yesterday that party leaders wanted Rahul Gandhi, the son of Sonia Gandhi, to play a meaningful role in the party.

AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni was answering questions at a media briefing on the proceedings of a Congress Working Committee meeting on the first day of the 82nd Congress plenary here.

“After the party’s conclave in Delhi, Congress leaders wanted Rahul Gandhi to join the organization in a meaningful manner so that more youth can be inspired to join the party to strengthen it,” Soni said.

However, she would not say whether any formal demand was made by any member at the CWC meeting yesterday to induct Rahul into the CWC. “I am not empowered to talk about what transpired at the extended CWC. I am neither denying it nor confirming it,” she said. Soni said the CWC meeting discussed the draft resolutions on political affairs, economic affairs, agriculture, employment and poverty alleviation and international relations and security for nearly four and a half hours.

She said all the 47 CWC members, except A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhary, attended the meeting along with other members of the extended body.Congress Committee, delegates and over 7,000 state Congress delegates had come to participate in the plenary. Besides, up to 6,000 Congress workers from northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan had come to Hyderabad.“They are neither AICC nor state delegates but ordinary party workers. We are in touch with security officers to let them into the AICC session. But the security agencies have not given clearance so far,” she added.After the CWC meeting, Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a presentation to the plenary on the programs of the United Progressive Alliance government. However, neither Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nor Congress President Sonia were present at this presentation.Soon after the plenary, Sonia is likely to meet Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda to discuss the Karnataka crisis. At her news briefing, Soni, however, maintained that the Karnataka issue did not come up at the extended Congress Working Committee meeting yesterday.She rejected suggestions that the party was a silent spectator to the imminent fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka. “This is not a matter of watching it silently. The man in charge of Congress affairs in Karnataka, A.K. Anthony, and CWC member Ahmed Patel are reviewing the developments in Karnataka. No political party can concede its defeat in such issues. There is every possibility of JD(S) president and Congress president having a meeting to discuss the matter in a few days. There is every possibility that H.D. Deve Gowda will prevail upon his (rebellious) party men. Chief Minister Dharam Singh is confident of surviving the trust vote on Jan. 27,” she said.She conceded that the crisis in Karnataka had shown the fragility of coalitions. “Coalition governments are formed on the basis of common minimum programs. Sometimes, there are hiccups in coalitions. Such incidents (like the one in Karnataka) occur. But then Congress has been successfully running coalition governments in states such as Maharashtra, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir. There has been a peaceful change of guard in Jammu and Kashmir after three years. The coalition government in that state is a good example of coalitions working well,” she observed.She said Congress had stuck to its principled stand in Karnataka that there should be no truck with communal forces. “Not a single Congress MLA has deviated from that stand. Deve Gowda has also said that there is no question of his having a truck with communal forces,” she added.The beleaguered Dharam Singh was conspicuous by his absence at the extended CWC meeting. “I have not seen Dharam Singh here. I don’t know whether he will come here tomorrow or not. His presence is needed there,” she quipped. Soni said Congress would make every effort to see that the coalition governments led by it in the states complete their tenures. “Coalitions, after all, are managed by all coalition partners. The UPA is successfully running a coalition government at the center on the basis of a common minimum program,” she added.

A top Congress party official said yesterday that party leaders wanted Rahul Gandhi, the son of Sonia Gandhi, to play a meaningful role in the party.

AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni was answering questions at a media briefing on the proceedings of a Congress Working Committee meeting on the first day of the 82nd Congress plenary here.

“After the party’s conclave in Delhi, Congress leaders wanted Rahul Gandhi to join the organization in a meaningful manner so that more youth can be inspired to join the party to strengthen it,” Soni said.

However, she would not say whether any formal demand was made by any member at the CWC meeting yesterday to induct Rahul into the CWC. “I am not empowered to talk about what transpired at the extended CWC. I am neither denying it nor confirming it,” she said. Soni said the CWC meeting discussed the draft resolutions on political affairs, economic affairs, agriculture, employment and poverty alleviation and international relations and security for nearly four and a half hours.

She said all the 47 CWC members, except A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhary, attended the meeting along with other members of the extended body.Congress Committee, delegates and over 7,000 state Congress delegates had come to participate in the plenary. Besides, up to 6,000 Congress workers from northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan had come to Hyderabad.“They are neither AICC nor state delegates but ordinary party workers. We are in touch with security officers to let them into the AICC session. But the security agencies have not given clearance so far,” she added.After the CWC meeting, Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a presentation to the plenary on the programs of the United Progressive Alliance government. However, neither Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nor Congress President Sonia were present at this presentation.Soon after the plenary, Sonia is likely to meet Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda to discuss the Karnataka crisis. At her news briefing, Soni, however, maintained that the Karnataka issue did not come up at the extended Congress Working Committee meeting yesterday.She rejected suggestions that the party was a silent spectator to the imminent fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka. “This is not a matter of watching it silently. The man in charge of Congress affairs in Karnataka, A.K. Anthony, and CWC member Ahmed Patel are reviewing the developments in Karnataka. No political party can concede its defeat in such issues. There is every possibility of JD(S) president and Congress president having a meeting to discuss the matter in a few days. There is every possibility that H.D. Deve Gowda will prevail upon his (rebellious) party men. Chief Minister Dharam Singh is confident of surviving the trust vote on Jan. 27,” she said.She conceded that the crisis in Karnataka had shown the fragility of coalitions. “Coalition governments are formed on the basis of common minimum programs. Sometimes, there are hiccups in coalitions. Such incidents (like the one in Karnataka) occur. But then Congress has been successfully running coalition governments in states such as Maharashtra, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir. There has been a peaceful change of guard in Jammu and Kashmir after three years. The coalition government in that state is a good example of coalitions working well,” she observed.She said Congress had stuck to its principled stand in Karnataka that there should be no truck with communal forces. “Not a single Congress MLA has deviated from that stand. Deve Gowda has also said that there is no question of his having a truck with communal forces,” she added.The beleaguered Dharam Singh was conspicuous by his absence at the extended CWC meeting. “I have not seen Dharam Singh here. I don’t know whether he will come here tomorrow or not. His presence is needed there,” she quipped. Soni said Congress would make every effort to see that the coalition governments led by it in the states complete their tenures. “Coalitions, after all, are managed by all coalition partners. The UPA is successfully running a coalition government at the center on the basis of a common minimum program,” she added.